Nicolas Sarkozy hopes to gain a little ‘va va voom’ from the Queen Times Online Controversial pastor coming to Wheeler Avenue Baptist Houston Chronicle China Shows Photos of Tibetan Protesters New York Times the toll from anti-Chinese riots in Tibet had risen to 19 dead and 623 injured. It said 18 civilians and a police officer had been confirmed dead in the unrest. The news agency said 241 police officers and 382 civilians had been injured in Lhasa. ...... began in Lhasa and have spread to many smaller towns on the Tibetan Plateau ..... 99 people have been killed in the government crackdown Op-Ed: After the End of the Affair David A. Paterson, who said Tuesday that his own extramarital affairs ended several years ago ...... In the parlance of American couples recovering from adultery, “D-Day” is the day you discover your spouse has been cheating on you. And as with the birth of Jesus, time is reset from there. ...... “The reactions of the betrayed spouse resemble the post-traumatic stress symptoms of the victims of traumatic events.” ..... “9/11 always reminds me of how it felt — one floor collapsing into another,” said a woman in her 40s who lives near Seattle. Another woman, writing in an Internet chat room, compared her husband’s affair to the Asian tsunami of 2004, which killed a quarter of a million people. ..... X.O.W. is the “ex-other woman,” O.N.S. is a “one-night stand” ...... A “cake man” is a husband who wants to have his wife and his mistress, too. ..... Wives from sub-Saharan Africa, a part of the world with the highest levels of male infidelity, told me how they went running down the street after their husbands, begging them to sleep at home. ........ If your spouse cheats, you’ve been living a lie. Americans describing their D-Day experiences say that they weren’t just shocked, jealous and profoundly upset, but that their whole view of the world had collapsed. “It robs you of your past,” one husband said. “What is real? What is fake?” ....... We’re the only country that peddles the idea that “It’s not the sex, it’s the lying.” (In France, it’s not the lying, it’s the sex.) America is also the only place I found that has a one-strike rule on fidelity: if someone cheats, the marriage is kaput. ....... he had had “a number of women” (and his wife had cheated, too). ...... Mrs. Spitzer discovered her husband’s apparent penchant for call girls only the night before he announced his “private matter” to the press. ....... marriage-industrial complex ..... A woman in Tennessee told me that she had gained 60 pounds since her husband found out she had been sleeping with a co-worker, in part because the couple now spends most of their free time on the couch rehashing the affair. “Neither of us cries as much as we used to, because of the antidepressants,” her husband said. What About Gehry’s Vision for Brooklyn? eight million square feet of residential and commercial development on an eight-acre site extending east from Flatbush and Atlantic Avenues, one of the borough’s most congested intersections ..... the nearby Williamsburgh Savings Bank tower — a classic stone phallus ..... Brooklyn’s vibrant answer to Times Square, minus the saccharine Disney décor. ...... the core of his concept, the charged relationship between the enclosed arena and the street Barack Obama's race speech an online video hit AFP Online searches for "Obama speech" rocketed 7,627 percent the day after the US presidential candidate took on the sensitive issue of race in a March 18 oratory, according to a Yahoo Buzz service that tracks what's hot online. ..... record-shattering honesty .... queries for 'I have a dream speech' and 'Martin Luther King Free at Last speech' both spiked the day after Obama spoke .... laid bare racial tensions in US culture that politicians usually avoid discussing..... Stewart made sport of "Obama talking to Americans about race as though they were adults." Obama race speech garners good reviewsBoston Globe Kenya: Obama Euphoria Now Hits Music Scene With a Bang AllAfrica.com the kind of attention he has attracted in the entertainment scene remains unmatched ..... The heat generated worldwide has attracted many celebrities across the world. Musicians, through their songs, are endorsing their favourite candidate. ..... Obama has more celebrity muscle going by the number of A-List entertainers rallying behind him ...... William, of the Black Eyed Peas did a pro-Obama song Yes We Can and its videos have generated more than five million hits on YouTube....... In Kenya, Cocoa Tea's Obama song has continued to rank top in a local radio station as "Beat of the Week" and is said to have one of the largest endorsements. ..... Revellers in Kenyan dancehalls usually go into a frenzy and dance with abandon, as soon as Obama's song rends the air. ...... Perhaps when he comes back to Kenya, he will look for me," says Nyadundo. Richardson says Clinton phone call got 'heated' MSNBC the conversation he had with Hillary ..... "It was tough to make the call, but I did. It got a little heated. It got a little tense. But it was understood, and I'm proud of my decision." .... He stressed that his decision to endorse Obama came a week before, but it was reinforced by the speech Obama gave on race last Tuesday. He cited his own racial background as a Hispanic to underscore why the speech was so significant. ....... I believe that Senator Obama is going to be the nomnee. ..... "I can tell you that there are very few people in American public life that have the breadth and depth of experience that Bill Richardson has," Obama said, adding that he would play a role in the campaign and hinting that he would have a role in a future Obama administration. New Mexico Governor Richardson Endorses Obama Voice of America Richardson endorses ObamaLos Angeles Times Richardson, Endorsing Obama, Looks for Generational ChangeWashington Post The line forms here for Rudy Giuliani campaign refund checks Los Angeles Times Some Tibetan Exiles Reject ‘Middle Way’ New York Times High Court admits Bihar plea against Lalu acquittal Hindu The Obama effectCanada.com Clinton Says Her Passport File BreachedThe Associated Press "an outrageous breach of security and privacy." ..... basic personal data such as name, citizenship, age, Social Security number and place of birth ..... the information could allow Obama's critics to dig deeper into his private life Obama, Clinton, McCain Passport Files Breached (Update1) Bloomberg State Department Employees Fired For Snooping Obama PassportU.S. News & World Report Clinton extends poll lead over ObamaIrish Times A top Nepali blogger recalls late King Mahendra NepalNews Kathmandu-based intelligentsia and expatriates say they anxiously await for Maila Baje’s postings every week.
Hillary Clinton's campaign uses pastor scandal to undermine Barack ... Telegraph.co.uk to argue that her Democratic rival would be dangerously vulnerable in a general election against John McCain. ..... Obama became the undisputed Democratic front-runner after his string of 11primary victories in February ...... a 13-point swing towards the former First Lady in under a fortnight. .... Geraldine Ferraro .... she was outraged to have been cited in the same breath as Mr Wright ..... "To equate what I said with what this racist bigot has said from the pulpit is unbelievable"
If you took high school biology, old man James Watson was your pastor, face it.
Fury at DNA pioneer's theory: Africans are less intelligent than ... Nobel Winner's Theories Raise Uproar in Berkeley Geneticist's ...Nobel laureate James Watson, whose co-discovery of DNA revolutionized the field of genetics ..... suggested there was a biochemical link between exposure to sunlight and sexual urges. ``That's why you have Latin lovers,'' Watson said. ``You've never heard of an English lover. Only an English patient.'' ...... Watson showed a slide of sad-faced model Kate Moss to support his contention that thin people are unhappy and therefore more ambitious. ..... ``Whenever you interview fat people, you feel bad, because you know you're not going to hire them,'' Watson said. ........ `He took a lot of what I consider sexist and racist stereotypes and claimed a biochemical basis without presenting any data.'' ....... Watson once suggested Japan should be bombed for dragging its feet on supporting the Human Genome Project. ...... listening to Watson at the podium was ``more embarrassing than having a creation scientist up there.'' ..... ``I found it really offensive,'' said Sarah Tegen ...... Watson showed slides of women in bikinis and contrasted them to veiled Muslim women, to suggest that controlling exposure to sun may suppress sexual desire and vice versa. ...... people who live in northern climates drink more alcohol to compensate for the unhappiness they suffer because of sunlight deprivation. .... ``To be a woman in science is difficult enough as it is without one of your own demeaning women'' ....... Now-deceased Stanford University professor William Shockley, who shared a Nobel for inventing the transistor, was ostracized during his lifetime for calling certain races genetically inferior, and for suggesting that people with IQs under 100 be paid bonuses if they agreed to be sterilized. Controversial Nobel winner resigns - CNN.com Watson Rediscovers 1940s Attitudes Towards Race | Wired Science ...First he said that “all the testing” has proven that people descended from Africa aren’t as smart as white people. Then, because apparently the testing comment wasn’t enough, he used some anecdotal evidence from his friends. He said he hoped that everyone was equal, but countered that “people who have to deal with black employees find this not true”. James Watson Retires After Racial Remarks - New York Timesoverall, people of African descent are not as intelligent as people of European descent.
In The News
In Tibetan Areas, Parallel Worlds Now Collide New York Times The big factory, said a man sitting next to him, benefits only members of the Han Chinese majority. .... “Tibetans get the low-income and the hard-labor jobs,” the man said. The Han, he said, “are all paid as technicians, even though some of them really don’t know anything.” ...... they occupy separate worlds. Relations between the two groups are typically marked by stark disdain or distrust, by stereotyping and prejudice and, among Tibetans, by deep feelings of subjugation, repression and fear. ...... privilege and power are overwhelmingly the preserve of the Han, while Tibetans live largely confined to segregated urban ghettos and poor villages in their own ancestral lands. ...... Tibetans whom they described as lazy and ungrateful ..... “We believe in working hard and making money to support one’s family, but they might think we’re greedy and have no faith.” ...... Han Chinese said they had no Tibetan friends and confessed that they tended to avoid interaction with Tibetans as much as possible ...... professed near-universal devotion to the Dalai Lama ..... “All Tibetans are the same: 100 percent of us adore the Dalai Lama” Editorial: Mr. Obama’s Profile in Courage Obama had to address race and religion, the two most toxic subjects in politics ...... Wright Jr., who denounced the United States as endemically racist, murderous and corrupt. ...... an honesty seldom heard in public life. ...... continues today in racial segregation, the school achievement gap and discrimination in everything from banking services to law enforcement. ...... the often-unspoken reality that people on both sides of the color line are angry. ...... both sides must acknowledge that the other’s grievances are not imaginary. ..... “Anger over welfare and affirmative action helped forge the Reagan coalition” ..... he raised the discussion to a higher plane. The Professor as Open Book It is not uncommon for professors’ Web pages to include lists of the books they would take to a deserted island, links to their favorite songs from bygone eras, blog posts about their children, entries “written” by their dogs and vacation photographs. ...... a professor’s job today is not just to impart knowledge, but to be an entertainer. ...... by divulging family history and hobbies, they hope to appear more accessible to students. ...... “It’s better when your professor’s human” .... there are students today who think professors are not doing their jobs unless they convey information in zany, interactive ways. ..... “It bespeaks a certain kind of desire that all of us have for that moment of fame” ....... this increased transparency Political Memo: Clinton Facing Narrower Path to Nomination Without new votes in Florida and Michigan, it will be that much more difficult for Mrs. Clinton to achieve a majority in the total popular vote in the primary season, narrow Mr. Obama’s lead among pledged delegates or build a new wave of momentum. ..... Obama had turned the furor to his advantage with his speech on race.
Senator Obama’s remarks follow as prepared for delivery.
Remarks for Senator Barack Obama The Cost of War University of Charleston Charleston, West Virginia Thursday, March 20, 2008
Five years ago, the war in Iraq began. And on this fifth anniversary, we honor the brave men and women who are serving this nation in Iraq, Afghanistan, and around the world. We pay tribute to the sacrifices of their families back home. And a grateful nation mourns the loss of our fallen heroes.
I understand that the first serviceman killed in Iraq was a native West Virginian, Marine 1st Lieutenant Shane Childers, who died five years ago tomorrow. And so on this anniversary, my thoughts and prayers go out to Lieutenant Childers’ family, and to all who’ve lost loved ones in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The costs of war are greatest for the troops and those who love them, but we know that war has other costs as well. Yesterday, I addressed some of these other costs in a speech on the strategic consequences of the Iraq war. I spoke about how this war has diverted us from fighting al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and from addressing the other challenges of the 21st Century: violent extremism and nuclear weapons; climate change and poverty; genocide and disease.
And today, I want to talk about another cost of this war – the toll it has taken on our economy. Because at a time when we’re on the brink of recession – when neighborhoods have For Sale signs outside every home, and working families are struggling to keep up with rising costs – ordinary Americans are paying a price for this war.
When you’re spending over $50 to fill up your car because the price of oil is four times what it was before Iraq, you’re paying a price for this war.
When Iraq is costing each household about $100 a month, you’re paying a price for this war.
When a National Guard unit is over in Iraq and can’t help out during a hurricane in Louisiana or with floods here in West Virginia, our communities are paying a price for this war.
And the price our families and communities are paying reflects the price America is paying. The most conservative estimates say that Iraq has now cost more than half a trillion dollars, more than any other war in our history besides World War II. Some say the true cost is even higher and that by the time it’s over, this could be a $3 trillion war.
But what no one disputes is that the cost of this war is far higher than what we were told it would be. We were told this war would cost $50 to $60 billion, and that reconstruction would pay for itself out of Iraqi oil profits. We were told higher estimates were nothing but “baloney.” Like so much else about this war, we were not told the truth.
What no one disputes is that the costs of this war have been compounded by its careless and incompetent execution – from the billions that have vanished in Iraq to the billions more in no-bid contracts for reckless contractors like Halliburton.
What no one disputes is that five years into this war, soldiers up at Fort Drum are having to wait more than a month to get their first mental health screening – even though we know that incidences of PTSD skyrocket between the second, third, and fourth tours of duty. We have a sacred trust to our troops and our veterans, and we have to live up to it.
What no one disputes is that President Bush has done what no other President has ever done, and given tax cuts to the rich in a time of war. John McCain once opposed these tax cuts – he rightly called them unfair and fiscally irresponsible. But now he has done an about face and wants to make them permanent, just like he wants a permanent occupation in Iraq. No matter what the costs, no matter what the consequences, John McCain seems determined to carry out a third Bush-term.
That’s an outcome America can’t afford. Because of the Bush-McCain policies, our debt has ballooned. This is creating problems in our fragile economy. And that kind of debt also places an unfair burden on our children and grandchildren, who will have to repay it.
It also means we’re having to pay for this war with loans from China. Having China as our banker isn’t good for our economy, it isn’t good for our global leadership, and it isn’t good for our national security. History teaches us that for a nation to remain a preeminent military power, it must remain a preeminent economic power. That is why it is so important to manage the costs of war wisely.
This is a lesson that the first President Bush understood. The conduct of the Gulf War cost America less than $20 billion – what we pay in two months in Iraq today. That’s because that war was prosecuted on solid grounds, and in a responsible way, and with the support of allies, who paid most of the costs. None of this has been the case in the way George W. Bush and John McCain have waged the current Iraq war.
Now, at that debate in Texas several weeks ago, Senator Clinton attacked John McCain for supporting the policies that have led to our enormous war costs. But her point would have been more compelling had she not joined Senator McCain in making the tragically ill-considered decision to vote for the Iraq war in the first place.
The truth is, this is all part of the reason I opposed this war from the start. It’s why I said back in 2002 that it could lead to an occupation not just of undetermined length or undetermined consequences, but of undetermined costs. It’s why I’ve said this war should have never been authorized and never been waged.
Now, let me be clear: when I am President, I will spare no expense to ensure that our troops have the equipment and support they need. There is no higher obligation for a Commander-in-Chief. But we also have to understand that the more than $10 billion we’re spending each month in Iraq is money we could be investing here at home. Just think about what battles we could be fighting instead of fighting this misguided war.
Instead of fighting this war, we could be fighting the terrorists who attacked us on 9/11 and who are plotting against us in Afghanistan and Pakistan. We could be securing our homeland and stopping the world’s most dangerous weapons from falling into terrorist hands.
Instead of fighting this war, we could be fighting for the people of West Virginia. For what folks in this state have been spending on the Iraq war, we could be giving health care to nearly 450,000 of your neighbors, hiring nearly 30,000 new elementary school teachers, and making college more affordable for over 300,000 students.
We could be fighting to put the American dream within reach for every American – by giving tax breaks to working families, offering relief to struggling homeowners, reversing President Bush’s cuts to the Manufacturing Extension Partnership, and protecting Social Security today, tomorrow, and forever. That’s what we could be doing instead of fighting this war.
Instead of fighting this war, we could be fighting to make universal health care a reality in this country. We could be fighting for the young woman who works the night shift after a full day of college and still can’t afford medicine for a sister who’s ill. For what we spend in several months in Iraq, we could be providing them with the quality, affordable health care that every American deserves.
Instead of fighting this war, we could be fighting to give every American a quality education. We could be fighting for the young men and women all across this country who dream big dreams but aren’t getting the kind of education they need to reach for those dreams. For a fraction of what we’re spending each year in Iraq, we could be giving our teachers more pay and more support, rebuilding our crumbling schools, and offering a tax credit to put a college degree within reach for anyone who wants one.
Instead of fighting this war, we could be fighting to rebuild our roads and bridges. I’ve proposed a fund that would do just that and generate nearly two million new jobs – many in the construction industry that’s been hard hit by our housing crisis. And it would cost just six percent of what we spend each year in Iraq.
Instead of fighting this war, we could be freeing ourselves from the tyranny of oil, and saving this planet for our children. We could be investing in renewable sources of energy, and in clean coal technology, and creating up to 5 million new green jobs in the bargain, including new clean coal jobs. And we could be doing it all for the cost of less than a year and a half in Iraq.
These are the investments we could be making, all within the parameters of a more responsible and disciplined budget. This is the future we could be building. And that is why I will bring this war to an end when I’m President of the United States of America.
But we also know that even after this war comes to an end, the costs of this war will not. We’ll have to keep our sacred trust with our veterans and fully fund the VA. We’ll have to look after our wounded warriors – whether they’re suffering from wounds seen or unseen. That must include the signature injuries of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan – not just PTSD, but Traumatic Brain Injury. We’ll have to give veterans the health care and disability benefits they deserve, the support they need, and the respect they’ve earned. This is an obligation I have fought to uphold on the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee by joining Jay Rockefeller to expand educational opportunities for our veterans. It’s an obligation I will uphold as President, and it’s an obligation that will endure long after this war is over.
And our obligation to rebuild our military will endure as well. This war has stretched our military to its limits, wearing down troops and equipment as a result of tour after tour after tour of duty. The Army has said it will need $13 billion a year just to replace and repair all the equipment that’s been broken or lost. So in the coming years we won’t just have to restore our military to its peak level of readiness, and we won’t just have to make sure our National Guard is back to being fully prepared to handle a domestic crisis, we’ll also have to ensure that our soldiers are trained and equipped to confront the new threats of the 21 century and that our military can meet any challenge around the world. And that is a responsibility I intend to meet as Commander-in-Chief.
So we know what this war has cost us – in blood and in treasure. But in the words of Robert Kennedy, “past error is no excuse for its own perpetuation.” And yet, John McCain refuses to learn from the failures of the Bush years. Instead of offering an exit strategy for Iraq, he’s offering us a 100-year occupation. Instead of offering an economic plan that works for working Americans, he’s supporting tax cuts for the wealthiest among us who don’t need them and aren’t asking for them. Senator McCain is embracing the failed policies of the past, but America is ready to embrace the future.
When I am your nominee, the American people will have a real choice in November – between change and more of the same, between giving the Bush policies another four years, or bringing them to an end. And that is the choice the American people deserve.
Somewhere in Baghdad today, a soldier is stepping into his Humvee and heading out on a patrol. That soldier knows the cost of war. He’s been bearing it for five years. It’s the cost of being kept awake at night by the whistle of falling mortars. It’s the cost of a heart that aches for a loved one back home, and a family that’s counting the days until the next R&R. It’s the cost of losing a friend, who asked for nothing but to serve his country.
How much longer are we going to ask our troops to bear the cost of this war?
How much longer are we going to ask our families and our communities to bear the cost of this war?
When are we going to stop mortgaging our children’s future for Washington’s mistake?
This election is our chance to reclaim our future – to end the fight in Iraq and take up the fight for good jobs and universal health care. To end the fight in Iraq and take up the fight for a world-class education and retirement security. To end the fight in Iraq and take up the fight for opportunity, and equality, and prosperity here at home.
Those are the battles we need to fight. That is the leadership I want to offer. And that is the future we can build together when I’m President of the United States. Thank you.
In The News
Worsening polls reveal Obama's pastor problem AFP Obama suffered in the polls Thursday after a much-acclaimed speech on race that, pundits said, had failed to defuse voters' anger over rage-filled sermons by his former pastor. .... white working-class voters and independents especially alienated. ...... Just before the Wright videos emerged last week, Obama's rating was 52 percent. .... the row was grist for her aides' lobbying of superdelegates. ..... "Mrs. Clinton's advisers said they had spent recent days making the case to wavering superdelegates that Mr. Obama's association with Mr. Wright would doom their party in the general election"
Obama Tries to Shift Focus Away From Race New York Times Iraq is costing each household about $100 a month ..... the costs of this war have been compounded by its careless and incompetent execution ..... Obama’s campaign has kept track of the reaction to the speech in Philadelphia to help decide whether he will need to address the subject again ..... Pennsylvanians are rushing in record numbers to sign up as Democrats so they can vote in the primary ..... Mrs. Clinton waged a low-key campaign on Thursday in Terre Haute and Anderson, Ind., two once-affluent industrial cities that are now struggling economically. ...... Clinton said that women were usually the “designated worriers” in any family, and said she filled that role in her own family. ..... said Dan Parker, the Indiana Democratic chairman. “Race? We don’t really want to talk about that.”
It first hit me as a feeling, unarticulated, but immediate. It took me weeks to articulate the feeling to myself. But I started reacting to it immediately. I started looking for the person who put me through the coat check. Who did it? Some time in January I blamed Berger: Berger masterminded the mandatory coat check. Then I decided, Berger could not have done it alone. Maybe Pollak was part of it as well. At the Texas debate watch in Caputo's presence I started thinking maybe it was not the two guys. It is always Caputo who calls the shots. At Tonic for the Texas Ohio returns watch, I saw the same white guy security guard. So it was Caputo. I tried to be understanding, all that data on violence on women, the data on violent crime in this city itself.
It took me full three months and a mystery woman (Satyagraha, Day 1) to realize a mandatory coat check is a routine, boring thing bars do for events where many people show up. I clearly misunderstood. And by a wide, wide margin.
If I had not misunderstood I would have reacted differently to Elizabeth at the Holiday party, at the December Baby party, the Planned Parenthood event, also when I showed up for the Texas debate watch.
There are two facts. One, I clearly misunderstood. Two, why did I misunderstand. Both facts are important. You don't get to dismiss the second.
The civil war in Nepal started after I left Nepal in 1996 and lasted a full decade. I did not have anything to do with it, I have not been there physically. But I have been there every day. My mind has been there. A part of me has been living in that war zone every day. My entire time in New York City, I have played a very active role in trying to bring that war to an end. All that violence is going to occupy a part of your mind. It does not feel normal at all. You are not at peace. Once in a while you will get spasms of unease.
Only a few months back my Harvard grad brother-in-law, married to my youngest sister - they live in the city - lost his father to a vicious murder back in Nepal. The police think at least five people must have been involved. I have not seen my family go through a more intense emotional turmoil. My mother was bed ridden for days.
I would not feel safe going to Nepal right now.
My reaction to Benazir's death was intense, personal, emotional. Faraway events impact me: they are not far away to my mind. I was 23 when I landed in America. (Nobody Quite Like Benazir)
The day 9/11 happened, I was in a small town in Kentucky. The locals called the cops on me. That was not the last such experience.
When in Nepal, I was politicking right out of high school. I was politicking at the national level. I got to know this guy called Mirza, barely. More like we knew of each other, met in person a few times. But he was extremely good friends with some people who I was very good friends with. He was a MP. He was also Dawood's top guy in Nepal. Dawood ran - runs - Mumbai's underworld from Dubai and Karachi. His Hindu rival Chhota Rajan ran his business from Bangkok. A year into America I learned Mirza had been mowed down. They pushed 42 bullets into his body. They could not afford the news he was "still alive" so they did a thorough job. I was never mafia, but I got to know this guy. He was quite a celebrated politician, gave great speeches at mass meetings.
In Texas some cowboys emptied their guns into my truck. It felt like being under machine gun fire. The closest bullets hit perhaps 15 feet from me.
In Kentucky I got detained once for 35 hours over something this or that email. They let me out at midnight. It was in another town.
Towards the end of my Class 10 year in Kathmandu, some classmates from a rival dorm came to beat some of us up at the city buspark when we were on our way home for the most important vacation of the year, us out of Kathmandu boys. In how the school authorities reacted to that incident, I woke to the social gravity of prejudice and racism for the first time in my life. It was 1989. It was a slow waking up that took years, gave me major career hits. The number two guy in class went on to Harvard to Goldman. I was number one before that bus park incident.
I once got into a major road accident in upstate New York: ice in early spring, early morning. I counted. The difference between life and death is three seconds: 1001, 1002, 1003. I did not get a scratch, but when you get lucky like that, you don't try your luck a second time.
I once drove overnight through a hurricane, I followed it up the east coast. The rainfall was horizontal.
I am a Third World guy. I think about deaths on a daily basis, deaths to stupid violence, petty disease. My tech startup is not a guy saying okay, bye bye to politics, let's go make some money to buy fancy cars. Internet access is the voting right for this century. The Internet is what will bridge the wide gulf between the first and third worlds. This is the Internet Century. I don't have the option to say bye bye politics. But I also have the compulsion to do other things.
Weak Social Muscles: What Do I Mean
A few weeks back, I was at an Obama event at the Irish Rogue. I was there for four hours. The first two hours, I had a hard time connecting. I would go for 30 seconds with someone, maybe a minute, then I necessarily had to walk away, go be by myself. After two hours I left and went outside. Then came back.
Two more hours and I was finally into small talk, small banter, small jokes. But by then most people had already left.
I know I have it, it is in there, but intense 2.0 work for Nepal, Obama, and my startup has left me with weak social muscles.
Lesson: a rich social, emotional life is necessary to a rich 2.0 life. There is no 2.0 without 5.0.
I am bigger on personal space than anyone I ever met. It is like, there is India and its communal culture and arranged marriages. There is America and its individualism. I am beyond America. And that has implications. I feel like every white guy who has tried to hook me up with the Queen has cost me a few months of my life.
But the mystery woman has proven me wrong. I can't do it on my own. A relationship is not just something between two individuals. It perhaps takes a village, or a few close friends. Just don't start with white guys! They have been part of the pain in Kathmandu and Kentucky. I get a little irrational.
Love, Work
They say to be happy in life you have to find two things: love and work.
When Hillary showed up on the scene in 1992, it was news that she did not stay home to bake cookies. Career women don't have a long history.
But that was 1992. Today it is 2008. The question I am asking is this. Would it be possible to imagine two high voltage careers and one happy relationship? Has never been done before.
The way it could work is if (1) there were an intense soulmate recognition, (2) there were numerous channels of communication open, (3) there would be zero tolerance for the slightest hint of racism or sexism in the relationship, (4) a detached, pragmatic separation between the personal and the social, political on race and gender, (5) and a total celebration of work: work is worship.
Jeremiah Wright is right about one thing: race has to be talked about. Finally race is being talked about at the highest level. That is a good thing. That is the best way to make progress on race, the most productive way. Race relations are like a marriage: communication is the lifeblood. People got to talk.
If Barack wants to compete with Abraham Lincoln in the greatness department, he has no option but to tackle race head on as he did in his Philly speech. That is a good start.
Hillary has played foul. In one recent interview, when asked if she thought Barack was a Muslim, she said he was not Muslim, and then added, "as far as I know." That would be like Barack saying in New Hampshire, iron my shirt too.
Racism, Sexism Can Be Cured Like Polio Vaccine Was Found, Slavery Was Ended
I am not talking about I have black friends kind of a cure, although it helps to have many many friendships across the racial, cultural barriers and boundaries. I am talking about tackling the concrete data on disparity. It is about ending the chronic poverty in the inner cities, it is about dreaming up a Marshall Plan for all the inner city schools, it is about health for all, it is about taking all of America into the Information Age.
But ending racism is primarily about ending all Third World dictatorships. Lincoln liberated a few million black slaves, Barack is going to have to liberate billions who still live under the thumb of dictators.
Ending sexism today is primarily about ending all Arab dictatorships. All pro-choice white women in America are going to have to realize that. Arab women are in bad shape.
That Lovey Dobey Feeling
There is the hard, concrete part of Third World dictators, and data on racial disparity in education and health. Then there is the soft part, of racial prejudices and stereotypes, and of conversations on race and gender. We have to tackle both.
In The News
Clinton takes lead over Obama in Gallup poll Reuters March 14-18 national survey .... a 49 percent to 42 percent edge .... McCain leading Obama 47 percent to 43 percent .... edged Clinton 48 percent to 45 percent Liberal activists choose Obama over Clinton in new straw pollWashington Times Superdelegates Await Impact Of Obama Race SpeechU.S. News & World Report Violence in Tibet strains China's relations with India, Nepal Christian Science Monitor Anti-Chinese protests broke out in Tibet March 10 on the 49th anniversary of an abortive 1959 uprising against Chinese rule . ..... Fallout from the turmoil is clouding diplomacy and Olympic preparations. ..... Top Chinese official Zhang Qingli has described Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, as a "wolf wrapped in monk's robes, a devil with a human face and a beast's heart." ..... Armed police and troops poured into distant towns and villages in Tibetan areas of adjacent provinces, with demonstrations continuing to flare. ... planned meeting between British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and the Dalai Lama. Obama's Speech on Race Tops YouTube NPR The most popular video on YouTube ..... 1.6 million times ..... "Barrack to the Future!!" .... "He didn't try to skirt the issue and really spoke to us about race from a very honest and transparent place" The Origin of Obama's Pastor ProblemTIME Obama called for blacks and whites to move beyond the "racial stalemate" .... shouting "God damn America!" and calling 9/11 a case of "America's chickens ... coming home to roost." ...... a story that threatened to capsize Obama's front-running campaign with the speed of a Wall Street bankruptcy. ..... the speech he'd been turning over in his mind for much of his adult life. "There wasn't a discussion," says spokesman Robert Gibbs. "He made a decision." Obama went home to Chicago that night, and after his wife and two daughters were asleep, he started composing. ...... an artfully reasoned treatise on race and rancor in America, the most memorable speech delivered by any candidate in this campaign and one that has earned Obama comparisons to Lincoln, Kennedy and King. ....... a 27-year-old ... Obama was searching for an identity and a community, and he found both at Trinity. ...... the era of slavery, when African Americans held services under trees, far from their white masters. "Churches have always been the place where black people could speak freely," she says. "They were the only institutions they could own and run by themselves." ..... "If you're black and you're trying to get ahead in politics, you're not going to join Trinity," says Dwight Hopkins, a Trinity member who is also a professor at U. of C.'s Divinity School. "Not because it's radical — it isn't radical in its context. But it would be safer to join a North Side ecumenical church — the sort of place where people are quiet. They stand up, sit down, listen and leave." ....... his response to controversy isn't to walk out of the room but to try to understand what's fueling the fire ...... Obama is counting on voters to accept nuance in an arena that almost always rewards simplicity over complexity. ..... After he delivered his speech, Obama found his wife Michelle backstage. She was weeping. He shared a quiet, emotional moment with her. Then Obama was all business again. "What's next?" Reaction to the Obama Speech a serious speech about the incendiary topic of race in America ..... Whether he likes it or not, and whether Americans generally like it or not, race is a big part of this election ..... race isn't just another issue; it is THE issue of American history .... He actually needs to have the racial debate continue until it exhausts the media and the electorate as a whole. If he has to confront racial division in October in a major way, he will lose the election. By October, he needs to have the media and voters say, "We've already finished with this subject. What about Iraq? What about the economy?" ....... honest, frank, measured in tone, inclusive and hopeful ...... he appeared wise beyond his years and genuinely presidential. ..... truly a transcendent speech and a remarkable piece of oratory. ...... connect the concerns of black Americans with the needs of unemployed white men and underemployed white women. ...... a stunning effort: both to expose the seamy elements of racism to public view and to redefine the issue for the future as the challenge of building opportunity. ...... white men who have proven one of the toughest political nuts for the Obama campaign to crack ..... centuries of racial tensions that have been part of Pennsylvania politics ..... there's one town — York — that surrendered to the South before the battle of Gettysburg ....... John Kerry got hammered just for protesting the Vietnam War, a war that George W. Bush ducked. A black candidate named Barack Hussein Obama can't have questions about his patriotism, and commitment to America, not if he is going to beat a genuine war hero. ...... The Internet is a powerful thing ...... I thought the speech was incredibly honest and personal. Very few politicians in this country, black or white, could have given an authentic speech like that and speak to the experiences of every American. I don't think these issues are going away, but Obama changed the terms of the debate. From the start, the promise of his candidacy has been about moving beyond petty politics and confronting the big issues confronting the country. He did that today. There are likely lots of voters giving him a second look today who had previously written him off. ....... He's unlike any other politician ..... the most profound speech about race that I could recall in my lifetime. .... A bunch of consultants did not dream this up. He denounced Wright but stood by him and compared him to his grandmother, that is politically risky. ...... an incredibly honest speech ...... nothing in American politics is more divisive or more volatile than race: not political parties, not ideology, not abortion, not gun rights, not war and peace. ......... today's Quinnipiac Pennsylvania poll showing sharpening African-American support for Obama and sharpening white support for Senator Clinton. Obama's Bold Gamble on RacePoliticians don't give speeches like the one Barack Obama delivered this morning at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. Certainly presidential candidates facing the biggest crisis of their campaigns don't. ...... the breathtakingly unconventional speech Obama gave ..... "As imperfect as he may be, he has been like family to me." ...... Obama declared today that the only way to transcend race is to focus on it rather than downplay it — to acknowledge its sometimes oppressive presence in American life, in the form of both black anger and white alienation. ....... seek to understand those whose emotions seem threatening, wrong-headed ...... the anger behind Rev. Wright's comments, while paralyzing, was also valid, the result of decades and centuries of real discrimination and oppression ...... asked blacks to understand that whites who resent affirmative action and whose fears of crime lead them to stereotype blacks should not be dismissed as racists, because their concerns and fears are real and valid, too. ....... Obama's speech was profound, one of the most remarkable by a major public figure in decades. ...... race still divides us ....... Explicitly asking Americans to grapple with racial divisions, and then transcend them — that's a bold request. Joe Klein on Obama's Speech comparing apples and freight trains .... unequivocal in his candor about black anger and white resentment—sentiments that few mainstream politicians acknowledge ...... free-trade agreements like NAFTA have only a marginal impact on the loss of manufacturing jobs and that it will be impossible to end the war in Iraq in 16 months. ...... For many Americans, the Wright flap is the third thing they've learned about Obama. The first two were that he is black and has a "funny" name. All too many voters don't get beyond first impressions ...... the media—where cynicism too often passes for insight Clinton's Hopes for Florida Fade Will Dean's War on Florida Backfire? So now, just as that state party is regaining full use of its limbs, it defies credulity to watch Dean and the DNC go out of their way to chop them off. ..... Third World countries like Mexico today hold more modern and truly democratic primaries than America's, whose Iowa- and New Hampshire-centric traditions seem as atavistic to a lot of people as using groundhogs to forecast the arrival of spring. Barack Obama Linked to New Controversial PreacherFOXNews Trinity helps the poor. Trinity feeds the hungry. Trinity does things for the homeless. ...... he has said some pretty horrible things, denounced Hollywood Jews. He has called being gay an evil sickness. His church has held a party where they sent gay people to hell. ...... do you accept the idea that Barack Obama isn't responsible for every single thing that someone who supports him says ...... many people outside the black community have no idea what goes on in the black church. What is being done at Trinity is mainstream black churches. ....... that G.D. America, that the American government caused AIDS, that America is the worst terrorist nation on earth. McCain gains edge over Dems, Clinton over ObamaBaltimore Sun Obama Accuses Clinton of “Bankrolling” Re-Vote CBS News Clinton Presses Obama on Efforts For Revotes in Florida and MichiganWashington Post Clinton challenges Obama to agree to new Michigan, Florida primariesKansas City Star Clinton gets Voters Rights Fever ABC News 368 Florida and Michigan delegates ..... Two Clinton-backing governors, Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania and Jon Corzine of New Jersey, have even lined up donors to help pay for the contest because Michigan's and Florida's governors say the states will not foot the bill. ..... officials from both states now say that revotes seem unlikely. ..... it's a mess for those important battleground states and Republicans are loving every minute of it. Clinton opens up White House filesThe Age Looking ahead: Clinton still up in PAMSNBC Clinton’s lead keeps growing. ..... Clinton leading by 16 points, 51% to 35% ..... one in five of each candidate’s backers said they would vote for McCain if the other person won the Democratic nomination. Analysis: Obama goes beyond generalities on race Boston Globe added gravitas to a candidacy that some have found superficial ..... few have tried to capture Lincoln's almost mournful tone of parsing painful issues, piece by piece, in reference to timeless principles ...... the legacy of discrimination - and current incidents of discrimination, while less overt than in the past - are real and must be addressed .... the moment that Obama got a little more down and dirty ..... a nation confronting its sins and overcoming its deeply held fears and prejudices. Speech Aimed at Diverse Audiences Draws Some Comparisons to JFK Washington Post "He was between the devil and deep blue sea, and he did a good job ..... As skilled an orator as Obama is, he has faced few moments as fraught as yesterday's. .... clips of his longtime spiritual mentor declaring "God damn America" for its mistreatment of blacks and saying that the country had provoked the Sept. 11, 2001 ..... The speech drew praise across the political spectrum ....... "If he wins the presidency, this will be seen as a very important speech." ...... a friend of Wright's, clapped in his living room as Obama lauded Wright for "housing the homeless, ministering to the needy, providing day-care services and scholarships and prison ministries." ...... "All of us from that generation had to go around through the back door, had to ride in the segregated portion of the train. That anger can keep us marred down in the mud, or it can be creatively used. Nepal Maoists face the ballot box Reuters Canada Giuliani, After Campaign, Returns to Private Sector Wall Street Journal Dalai Lama Threatens to Resign New York Timesthreatened to resign as leader of Tibet’s government-in-exile in the event of spiraling bloodshed in his homeland. ..... remained committed to only nonviolent agitation and greater autonomy for Tibetans, not independence Invited to Wrestle in a Racial Mud Pit, Obama Soars Above It Washington Post those whites who want Obama to "transcend race" while they get to hold on to their racist ways. ..... Right-wing TV commentators then detonated it with ignorant vitriol, including an insinuation by Pat Buchanan that Wright was a black David Duke, the former leader of the white terrorist organization known as the Ku Klux Klan, and that Obama was the disciple of a hateful man. ...... I no longer wanted to risk getting stuck in a racial tar pit with Buchanan ..... the racial divide, the gap in black and white perceptions of reality ...... connect slavery to black suffering today. .... inferior, racially segregated schools that still haven't been fixed "50 years after Brown versus Board of Education." Obama's history, and America'sBoston Globe Obama took the opportunity to engage the question of race in America, starting a bold, uncomfortably honest conversation. He asked Americans to talk openly about the deep wells of anger and resentment over racism, discrimination, and affirmative action. It's a call to break out of the country's racial stalemate and finally reach a new national understanding....... European immigrants have shortened multisyllabic names to fit in. ..... building a better America, one with stronger schools, better health care, reliable voting machines, fairer taxes, strong roads and bridges, and a healthy economy. Clinton Tries to Keep Plan for Two Revotes Alive New York Times Florida officially scuttled plans for a new vote and Michigan lawmakers appeared far from a deal. ...... Michigan Democrats are divided, that a revote would not make much difference in the overall delegate count ..... “I also question the legality of someone raising private money to conduct a public election.”
